EXPERTS ADVISORY

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan has faculty experts who can discuss the significance of the Paris climate conference, as well as several students who attended the event.

Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, teaches a course on the climate change problem solving that covers the interface of interface of climate change with policy, business, public health and communication. He is posting his thoughts on COP21 at his Wunderground blog.

Contact: 301-526-8572 (cell phone), rbrood@umich.edu

Andrew Hoffman, education director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, is professor of natural resources and environment, and management and organizations.

Contact: 734-763-9455, ajhoff@umich.edu

Barry Rabe, professor of public policy, political science and natural resources and environment, is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He surveys Americans on issues related to climate change in the National Surveys on Energy and Environment.

Contact: 734-615-9596, brabe@umich.edu

Joe Arvai, professor of natural resources and environment and business administration, is director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. His expertise is in the area of decision-making, corporate sustainability and the triple-bottom-line.

Contact: 734-647-3891 (office), 734-834-2075 (cell), jlarvai@umich.edu, @DecisionLab

Paul Edwards, professor of information and history, is attending the first half of the conference. He is author of the book “A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data and the Politics of Global Warming.” He can discuss how society might shift away from carbon-based energy, as well as the structure of the conference and its significance.

Read his article in the Conversation about how fast society can transition to a low-carbon energy system at myumi.ch/LrnD2.

Contact: 734-764-2617, pne@umich.edu

Rosina Bierbaum, professor of natural resources and environment and environmental health sciences, is an expert on environmental policy, sustainable development and climate change adaptation.

The former SNRE dean serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chairs the Science and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. She was a lead convening author of the climate adaptation chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment and a review editor on a 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report about climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

Contact: 734-763-8675, rbierbau@umich.edu

Arun Agrawal, professor of natural resources and environment, was a lead author of the livelihoods and poverty chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

His expertise lies in the political economics of development, environmental governance, resource use and management, climate adaptation and institutional analysis. He is editor-in-chief of World Development, a multidisciplinary journal of development studies and coordinator of the International Forest Resources and Institutions Network.

Contact: 734-647-5948, arunagra@umich.edu

Ben van der Pluijm, the Bruce R. Clark Professor of Geology and former director of the U-M Global Change Program, can discuss near-term societal resilience—related to weather, coastal lands and energy, for example—of climate change.

Contact: 734-763-0373, 734-663-9134, vdpluijm@umich.edu

Henry Pollack, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of “A World Without Ice,” a book that explores how humans are dramatically changing that critical component of the global environment. He was one of the U-M scientists who contributed to the climate reports issued by the United Nations-sponsored panel that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. He is also a scientific adviser to Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

Contact: 734-474-3823 (cell phone), hpollack@umich.edu

Don Scavia, professor of natural resources and environment and environmental engineering, is director of the Graham Sustainability Institute. He was the lead convening author of the Midwest chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment.

Scavia, an aquatic ecologist, can discuss the anticipated impacts of human-caused climate change on the Midwest, which include more frequent and more intense heat waves, as well as an increased frequency of intense rainstorms and floods.

Contact: 734-646-7808, scavia@umich.edu

Avik Basu, researcher in environmental psychology, is co-editor of the 2015 book “Fostering Reasonableness: Supportive Environments for Bringing Out Our Best.” He will be in Paris through Dec. 12 to observe the climate meeting as part of a 10-person U-M faculty and student delegation.

Contact: abasu@umich.edu

U-M graduate students who attended the Paris conference include:

Mayank Vikas is a graduate student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. His current academic area of focus is environmental policy and planning. He is a lawyer and has worked in India with both corporate law firms and not-for-profit organizations. Vikas is a recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship.

Contact: 202-830-8232, mayankvk@umich.edu.

Elizabeth Ultee is a doctoral student in climate and space sciences and engineering. She studies glacier dynamics. At the meeting, she will be following the role of science in the negotiating process, and the social justice implications of the conference’s process and outcomes. Ultee could her discuss perspectives in those areas, in addition to glacier flow and sea level rise. She is steadfast in her conviction that the meeting should go forward despite the recent attacks.

Contact: ehultee@umich.edu.

Benjamin Morse is a dual-degree graduate student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. His current academic area of focus is behavior, education and communication within the context of natural resources, as well as environmental and energy policy. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia 2011-13.

Contact: 313-588-0787, babmorse@umich.edu.